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A new ad from Best Buy:

H/T Cnet news (headline: “Best Buy ad: Our people are better than Wal-Mart’s”)

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Want to see uncomfortable?

Here’s five wonderfully painful minutes of Ben Stiller loitering around a Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas in full employee uniform, while he was filming his ‘skit’ for the shareholders’ meeting. He appears to be held prisoner by the electronics desk and a camera that was thankfully running the entire time.

So far I’m counting a couple yawns, 3-4 people who seem to recognize him, a lot of uncomfortable looking around and a pretty long conversation with a customer that appears to get him one vague smile—but definitely no laughs.

*Let’s use this moment to pile it on and point out that this was the same guy who has had to defend himself recently for breaking out a bottle of purell at a press conference after he shook the hand of a Mexican.

When do we think was the last time Ben Stiller’s been in a Wal-Mart? How long until he goes again?

What we definitely know is this: no one will be confusing Ben Stiller for a Wal-Mart shopper any time soon - much less a Wal-Mart worker. But with $40 million bucks in the bank, and the billionaire Walton Family to yuk it up with, he’s probably not too worried about it. 

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Over 50 religious leaders from a variety of faiths and denominations came to Capitol Hill this week to lobby members of Congress and show their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. The group has formed a coalition called Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness, which made its first public announcement in support of the labor reform bill on a conference call with press last week. The coalition has called the legislation a “moral imperative” and a civil and human right. Check out the video of their visit below.

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Aubretia is a Wal-Mart associate in Hudson, New York, who was courageous enough to speak out. From wages to scheduling to health care, Aubretia explains how hard it is to get by as a Wal-Mart employee.

Watch the new video:

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Aww, come on - someone had to do it…

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Another lawsuit, just like the first one that was filed. In fact, its so similar, I’m even recycling our blog graphic.

Led by plaintiff Marci Badgerow from Chicago, the suit attacks the 2005 agreement struck between the retailers, in which Wal-Mart agreed to exit the online rental business in exchange for Netflix stopping all DVD sales. In this way, the companies hoped to stop unnecessarily cannibalizing revenue between each other.

The suit believes this agreement is illegal and promotes unfair trade. As proof, the suit particularly cries foul over Netflix raising its monthly subscription price from $14.99 to $17.99, on the heels of calling its truce with Wal-Mart. Prior to aligning with Netflix, Wal-Mart was offering a significantly cheaper $12.97 a month subscription plan.

In fact, this lawsuit is so similar, you can just read our previous blog post, except while reading it imagine you’re in a court in snowy Chicago instead of sunny Los Angeles. In the meantime, we’ll see if we can get our hands on the complaint.

And with that, enjoy your weekend.

Netflix, Wal-Mart face second class-action lawsuit [Video Business, via Variety]

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Live right now! Mike Duke’s speaking now - Lee Scott should be up shortly.

Click here to watch.

UPDATE: Wal-Mart has pledged to reduce by 70% the amount of phosphates in its laundry detergent - by 2011. A step in the right direction. 

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Here’s the video from last night’s Charlie Rose Show, in case you missed it. It wasn’t particularly exciting - as usual, Lee Scott comes across soft-spoken and friendly, with all the talking points down to a T. But he opened up a little more than he usually does.

some highlights:

1) Lee Scott said he’s never had any problem selling the Wal-Mart Board on anything. (And that he addresses Rob Walton as ‘Sir’)

2) His single biggest regret as Wal-Mart CEO is taking so long to acknowledge, and to some degree work with, Wal-Mart’s critics.

3) He hammered home how he appalling he thinks it is that 47 million Americans are uninsured and how government should fix it. No mention of the 700,000 or so Wal-Mart employees that aren’t covered on the company plan.

but my favorite exchange of the night? (31:00 or so)

CR: “...tell me what I need to know, tell me what you think is essential for this government, based on your experience running a huge multinational corporation with tentacles everywhere..”

LS: “…we tend to think of them as branches, not tentacles…”

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In his swan song as Wal-Mart CEO yesterday, Lee Scott mostly talked doom and gloom about the retail economy, but also shrugged off a question about serving as Commerce Secretary - and threw down another gauntlet against EFCA.

From the National Retail Federation Blog transcript of the Q & A after the speech: (emphasis added)

Q: A bill recently proposed in Congress (aka: “card check“) that would eliminate the private ballot in employee elections to join a union:

A: “I don’t think you can amend this bill. It is fundamentally so flawed. I don’t want business 100% in control of everything. But the labor bosses have a history that’s not all that attractive either and we don’t want them in charge of everything. This country depends on checks and balances. Let’s keep the appropriate checks and balances in place.”

So, Lee Scott doesn’t want “them” (workers) to be in charge of everything? Let’s not forget who Lee Scott does want in charge of everything:

”We like driving the car and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.”

Below is the last of four video clips of Scott’s speech - the rest are available at the NRF’s website here. The transcript of the speech is available here.

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If you didn’t catch it, Lee Scott came out of hiding Sunday for a “roundtable” on the state of the American economy on Meet the Press, along with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney, Fmr. Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

We were holding out hope that David Gregory would (in his first ever show) make a splash by grilling Lee Scott on wages and labor practices, but we weren’t too surprised when it didn’t happen. Gregory did at least point out that Wal-Mart has taken flak on health care and “driving down wages,” but Lee Scott effectively dodged the question - by mentioning that his company had added new jobs and saying how he “reached out” to the Obama administration on America’s economic situation. Unfortunately, no follow up was asked. CQ posted the transcript:

GREGORY: Lee Scott, you know, you’ve been criticized at Wal-Mart on, on health care issues, on driving down wages. As a business leader, and when you think about your successor at Wal-Mart, do you have a responsibility to help Washington with the employment picture?

SCOTT: Well, we’ve been fortunate this year with our business to have added 30,000 jobs here in the U.S. We’ve improved our health care, we’ve improved, I think, the general opportunity of our associates. So, criticisms aside, I think Eric’s exactly right. These are not times to be self-serving, and that’s why we have reached out to the new administration and said, “We want to be a partner on these things.”

We’re glad that the line about health care and wages made it into the show, but other than a testy back-and-forth between Granholm and Romney on the auto bailout, the rest of the conversation was pretty disappointing. There were some interesting points made, but every other question Lee Scott was asked was a big, fat basketball-sized softball that let him run down the talking points about consumers trading down and why they need Wal-Mart more than ever.

No basic questions about the whether Americans’ wages are too low, and if so who is going to be the one who starts raising them. Nothing on whether passing the Employee Free Choice Act could be a stimulus plan for America’s middle class. And nothing on whether Lee Scott’s company - which by all rights is profiting wildly from the recession - actually wants it to end. And if it does, what it’s prepared to do for its workers to make that happen.

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An LA Times piece gives us new insight into the crowd atmosphere that led to Jdimytai Damour’s death - an atmosphere that began long before the doors at the Valley Stream store opened.

Apparently, shoppers were already rowdy, pushing and reporting injuries by 3:30 AM, long before the store opened. At that time, the crowd “had grown to 2000” - well above the crowds of previous years. While the article might appear to be an indictment of shoppers’ own senseless animal behavior and unrestrained emotions, it makes it clear that Wal-Mart had plenty of time to observe the chaos, and to work with local police and its own security to protect its customers and workers.

A coworker tells the Times that Damour told him after he was placed at the front of the store, before the doors were opened and then broken off the hinges, “I don’t want to be here.”

Wal-Mart crowd unruly long before trampling [Los Angeles Times via Seattle Times]:

NEW YORK — He took his last breath on the floor at Wal-Mart, between the soda machines and a device that gives change for cans and plastic.

Trampled by a mob of bargain-hungry Black Friday shoppers, Jdimytai Damour, 34, died by asphyxiation, leaving people asking: Why, and how?

Audio-enhanced chatter captured on a cellphone video posted on YouTube and interviews with witnesses offer some hints.

The video shows a police officer crouching by a 6-foot-5-inch, 270-pound man lying at the entrance of the Long Island Wal-Mart. A paramedic pumps the man’s chest so forcefully his limp legs and feet joggle. Shoppers peer from behind glass doors or stand a few feet away, hands in pockets.

“They need to shock him,” a voice says.

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AS A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF WAL-MART, I was aware that my store had a “loss-prevention team” - which basically consisted of two obvious plain-clothed, unarmed “security officers” that walked around the store watching people shop, trying to catch shop-lifters.  These guys were likely moonlighting at Wal-Mart on their days off from bouncer-duty at the bar.  Nevertheless, occasionally they would catch someone stealing, and that’s where it all gets fuzzy.  Let me make it perfectly clear, these guys ARE NOT law enforcement officials so the level of actual ‘enforcement’ they were legally allowed to use always seemed unclear.  From what I understood, they were not allowed to physically intervene in a theft situation, just ‘escort’ them to the back, and call the police. They were not allowed to slam you face-first onto the ground.

Apparently a loss-prevention officer for a Wal-Mart in Spartanburg, S.C. never got that memo. WYFF-TV in South Carolina reports that a video-survellience camera captured footage of loss prevention officer, Joseph Gregorie bear-hug a 58-year-old woman, he suspected of shop-lifting, and slam her face-first into the ground.  Talk about your all-time, total losses of composure.  The woman sustained minor facial injuries and was taken to an area hospital.  Wal-Mart was vague when talking to WSNA-TV in South Carolina about their loss-prevention protocol:

“...the spokesperson said their employees do follow certain ‘asset protection’ protocols, but she said she could not go into details about those protocols because of this investigation.”

UPDATE: if you didn’t already see it, check out the comment below from loyal reader Rob. He reports seeing a similar situation at a store where he worked.

Wal-Mart Employee Charged With Assaulting Shopper [WSNA-TV (S.C.)]

A Wal-Mart employee faces charges after police say he slammed a woman suspected of shoplifting face-first into the ground.

It happened late Tuesday night at the Dorman Centre Wal-Mart in Spartanburg. According to police reports, Joseph Gregorie, the store’s loss prevention officer, saw a 58-year old Greer woman concealing items in a bag. Gregorie says when he confronted her, the woman dropped the bag and tried to run away. The woman, Deborah Blackwell, tells police that Gregorie “bear hugged” her and slammed her face-first into the ground. She suffered a large contusion on her left eye and an injured hand and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. Gregorie told police that he grabbed Blackwell and she lost her balance and they both fell. But after reviewing surveillance video, the investigating officer said it shows Gregorie “throwing her to the ground”. He took the evidence to a judge who signed arrest warrants for both Gregorie and Blackwell.

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Wal-Mart Watch’s new video, “Wal-Mart saves money, the Walton family lives better,” shows the real life implications of Wal-Mart’s low-wage business model. While the average full-time hourly Wal-Mart worker makes $19,200 a year, the Walton family’s net worth rose to over $100 billion during the past year.

As average American families have conversations around their kitchen tables just like the Wal-Mart employee and his family in this video, the Walton family doesn’t have a care in the world.  Because the Walton family and Wal-Mart choose to pay low wages to the company’s workers, families across the country - just like this one - are struggling to stay in their homes, pay their bills, pay their medical expenses and take care of their families. 

So, while Wal-Mart saves money on the backs of its employees, the Walton family lives better – much better.  It’s no wonder that Wal-Mart is so opposed to any tool such as the Employee Free Choice Act, which could actually make it easier for employees to stand up to Wal-Mart and demand better wages and benefits. No, Wal-Mart executives and the Walton family want to keep on living better themselves - and it’s just too bad for the 1.4 million U.S. employees.

Check out the new video, and let us know what you think. 

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Wal-Mart Watch is releasing a new video today to accompany our new report, “Reasonable Accommodation – Denied,” which exposes Wal-Mart’s deliberate pattern of discrimination against employees with disabilities.

After working at Wal-Mart for nine years with a reasonable accommodation for her disability, Wal-Mart suddenly denied Jane’s accommodation.  They required her to take a leave of absence and have yet to reinstate her.  She has been essentially fired.  This is her story.

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“Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Waldemart” premiers on Halloween, 2008, and the trailer is already online. Sign up at http://waldemartwatch.com for an invitation-only sneak preview of the film on October 30th, or click here to download the webready poster (381 K) to send to friends.

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Go to www.waldemartwatch.com to sign up for an invitation-only sneak preview of “Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Waldemart” on October 30th. Look for the full release on October 31st, 2008, or watch the original.

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We’ve been following a story in recent weeks about how Wal-Mart wants to build a 141,000-square-foot supercenter on the edge of Wilderness Battlefield National Park in central Virginia. The plan came under heavy opposition in July by several historical/environmental/civil war preservation groups, collectively known as the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, when they drafted a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott.  The letter expresses the deep concern many feel over the proposed store: 

This Super Wal-Mart would be built within one-quarter mile of the National Park and would pave the way for desecration of the Wilderness with unnecessary commercial growth. Such a large-scale development is inappropriate next to a National Park.

The Civil War Preservation Trust has launched an entire website to spread the word and garner support against the plan. They were quoted this week in an article from NBC-29:

According to Brent Lawrenz of the Civil War Preservation Trust, “It’s going to put a tremendous pressure on Route 20 which is 2 lanes and they’re proposing to re-route part of it through key battleground area.”

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Dan Rather is back on Wal-Mart. 

Back in April, Dan Rather’s new show Dan Rather Reports did a full episode on the dubious workings of Wal-Mart’s PAC. This time, he takes a long look at the phenomenon of exploding gas cans, and interviews several boys that were very badly burned and disfigured.

If you haven’t heard the story before, Wal-Mart and its supplier Blitz USA have been repeatedly accused of selling gas cans that can explode if held near an open flame, shooting flaming gasoline in every direction. Experts say that a simple flame arrestor would make every can safe, and could be installed by the manufacturers for under $1 - and possibly as little as a few pennies. Wal-Mart and Blitz have of course denied any responsibility for the accidents, refused to take any action to make the cans safer, and actually deny that the cans can explode at all.

But the footage actually includes a clip of an exec on stage at a Manager’s meeting shamelessly joking about gas cans exploding.  And another unbelievable SNL-style fake-ad skit where a supposed Wal-Mart worker jokes about starting fires with gasoline from gas cans.

The clip above is the bulk of the segment on Wal-Mart, although part 6 goes on to tell us that Wal-Mart and Blitz gas cans are actually countersuing one of the families whose son was badly burned in a gas can explosion.

Every day, something new and horrifying from Wal-Mart.

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The Daily Show’s Rob Riggle, on assignment in Beijing, takes a trip to one of the country’s “home-grown success stories,” Wal-Mart. 

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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Ann Zimmerman, Chief Executive of Wal-Mart Stores USA Eduardo Castro-Wright discusses the company’s domestic retail strategy. Castro-Wright seems confident that the economy’s recent down turn has not been responsible for Wal-Mart’s sales boost: “I wouldn’t say a significant part of the current results is related to the economic environment. The changes in merchandising, marketing and improved service in the stores ... have vastly improved the shopping experience, and that will continue to drive sales after the economy rebounds.” This goes contrary to nearly every financial analyst’s views on the company’s current position, but you keep dreamin, Wal-Mart!